The Walking Dead: Worth (8x15)

Eugene is the worst.

Cons:

He's the worst in the sense that I'm getting sick and tired of looking at his stupid face and hearing his stupid voice. He uses up way too much screen-time, honestly. And this entire plot with him was a pointless detour! Daryl and Rosita kidnap him, which I thought was exciting, but then he gets away and gets back to his outpost, where he remains more determined than ever to produce bullets for Negan. This felt like a big honking waste of time to me. I was excited about the possibilities of Eugene back at Hilltop, but apparently not! And he treats Gabriel really poorly the whole time, which honestly does not help his case!

I'll admit I got caught up with the Dwight stuff just a little bit, but there is one big problem here: of course Negan discovered he was a spy. If he hadn't figured that out, it would have undercut Negan's threat as a villain in a big way, because Dwight isn't exactly difficult to figure out. I just wish there could have been a way for him to be a bit more subtle, or for Negan to figure him out a little sooner. One or the other.

Aaron is still wandering around the woods near Oceanside, trying to convince the women to join in against Negan. It feels like he's miles behind the program back home. Am I supposed to be invested in the outcome of his efforts? Because I am definitely not.

Pros:

I still think this show handled Carl's death poorly, in the way they dragged it out and made it all melodramatic. That being said, the letters thing... is kind of effective. Carl's letter to Rick was very sweet, and I loved the stuff about him remembering holding hands with his dad and going on walks, cut with images of Michonne walking by holding hands with Judith. That was really sweet. Honestly, Michonne's grieving process with Carl is making me even more emotional than Rick ever could. She is clearly devastated, clearly hates Negan, but also wants to do everything in her power to play out Carl's final wishes. She reads Negan his letter from Carl over the walkie-talkie, and seeing her say Carl's words as Negan listens was extremely powerful stuff. Of course, neither Negan nor Rick are going to be able to work together at this point. But I like that Michonne, even though she likely knows this, wants to do what she can for Carl.

I'm as surprised as anyone, but I actually found the interplay between Negan, Simon, and Dwight in this episode to be fascinating. Negan returns, forgives Simon, but then Dwight sells Simon out when Simon wants to stage a coup, and then Negan kills Simon, brutally, with his bare hands right in front of everyone, but then Dwight gets secret plans to Hilltop through Gregory, but then Negan knows about it and those were fake plans... so many twists and turns. As I said, I'm glad that Negan figured Dwight out, because it would have been stupid otherwise. But at the same time, I was really upset when it happened. I thought Negan might kill Dwight on the spot. That is one good thing about Negan as a villain. Even though the buildup almost always goes too long before the final execution, you can count on Negan to actually follow through with that final execution. It means that for the most part, when he's in charge, nobody is really safe. I wasn't surprised he killed Simon, and I wouldn't have been surprised if he had killed Dwight, too. I'm just glad he didn't!

So, next week is the finale. Does this mean that we're getting a final Rick vs. Negan showdown, that's actually going to end in death? I mean, I sure as hell hope so. If they try and drag this Negan business through past another hiatus... well, I won't be surprised, but I'll sure as hell be disappointed.

7.5/10